Thank you presenters, supporters, volunteers and guests for an extraordinary fifth year of the Wildlife Wednesday winter lecture series hosted by the Southeast Chapter of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance!
Talented presenters this past season are writers Mary Catharine Martin and Bjorne Dihle on Our Wild Heritage; scientist and videographer, Bob Armstrong on wildlife parenting; Michael Phelps on photographing Alaska’s wildlife; researcher Karen McCoy on Sitka black-tailed deer; biologist Stephanie Sell on Walrus Islands, and assistant professor Heidi Pearson on ecosystem services provided by marine mammals. These impressive and knowledgeable individuals enlightened, entertained and inspired.
We have the best guests in Juneau. They arrive early to help set up for Wildlife Wednesdays, visit our literature table for wildlife issues, sign up for alerts and take fliers to learn more about the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. After the presentation they stay to question our speaker, enjoy each other over treats and hot drinks and help us restore the room to normal.
In December we said goodbye to Wildlife Wednesdays at the Thunder Mountain High School’s library. We appreciate the support of librarian Raandi Miller, Mimi Mesdag and others.
January found Wildlife Wednesday’s in a new home. In a partnership, Robert Barr and Beth Weigel helped us plan Wildlife Wednesdays in the beautiful new Mendenhall Valley Public Library. We hope to bring new patrons to the library through the draw of talks on Alaska’s amazing wildlife.
KTOO, the Juneau Empire, What’s Up, the JAHC and others supplied promotion. Josh Klauder designed our posters and Patricia Wherry, Michelle Anderson and Jos Bakker post. Science and art teachers encouraged attendance at Wildlife Wednesdays. Attendance at both venues were high.
Yummy treats were provided by Jos Bakker, Patricia Wherry, Irene Morris and Mary Rudolph. In addition to regular fare like brownies and chocolate chip cookies, we sampled “must love banana cookies” and “fruit pizza minis.” Mary provided treats four times.
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance board provides us with support including the poster, web coverage and Wildlife Wednesday alerts.
This celebration of Wildlife Wednesday’s fifth birthday would not be complete without acknowledging that Tina Brown, formerly president of both AWA and AWA-SE, inaugurated Wildlife Wednesdays and brought us the first three amazing years of talks on wildlife.
We are lining up wonderful speakers for the 2016/17 winter series, so watch for details as autumn approaches!
Patricia O’Brien,
President of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance SE Chapter
